The Holy Family with Angels

Parmigianino was 21 when he took a few of his own pictures to Rome, hoping they would open a door at the papal court. Vasari says this panel was one of them, and that Clement VII kept it. The museum dates it around 1524, the year of that journey, without fixing a date. Three years later imperial troops sacked Rome, the court scattered, and the painter left the city. The picture kept moving after him. Clement gave it to Ippolito de' Medici, and by 1608 it was listed among the goods of the sculptor Pompeo Leoni, who worked for the Spanish crown, which is how it reached Madrid. It is oil on a wood panel, 110 by 89 centimetres. Joseph looks out from behind a tree trunk at the upper left while the Virgin, the Child and two angels are pressed into the right half, and a red inventory number is still painted in the lower corner.